Names

My good friend Sandra Ryan asserts that names are sacred, and not to be messed with. Nicknames, especially ones that denigrate, are so not cool with her. I stood with her, fighting poverty, the kind of poverty that sucks the dignity right out of a persons soul. So when they came in off the street and said their name was Bubs or DumbDumb, she'd just say, "No, your real name." I learned so much from her about the importance of names. Our names are given to us at birth, our nicknames are laid over our names, hiding our true identity, making us fake.

My birth name, as you know, is Wayne, which comes from the trade name Wainwright, or wagon wheel maker. I don't think my parents knew that, they just liked the name. It's interesting though, it harkens back to the middle ages when peoples names were connected to what they did or where they were from (which makes my wonder about my family name). 

Where am I going with this? I agree that names are sacred, and shouldn't be messed with, except when enhanced or honoured with a tagline or title. Sandra also called me Renovator, and she meant it in the broadest sense. She saw my character as one that renovates, revives, restores, brings new vigour. That was helpful then and it continues to guide me now. 

Someone else I worked with called me recalcitrant–oww! That one hurt. I've since learned where that came from. As a renovator, the very first thing you do is start poking at what is, to discover what's hidden, to get to the barebones. Before I understood my character as Renovator, I was poking things that didn't belong to me, or things that I hadn't been invited to renovate. Renovating without contract is destructive, rather than reconstructive. 

Today I hope that I am a true renovator, one who takes great care in the deconstruction process, and even greater care in the renovating so as to discover and reveal not only the original design but the renewed potential. 

My most important renovation project is myself. I am renovating my soul, deconstructing faith and cultural values that were poured into me, removing the decay, and restoring what God imagined me to be. For guidance, I go to the Original Designer.

My next posts will be some of my deconstructive musings, stay tuned.